Olympic Academy Duo Win at Gent

 

Story posted November 30

 

The winners Adam Blythe and Peter Kennaugh are crowned champions of Gent. Far left is Six Day king of the 60s and 70s, Patrick Sercu. Photo: Copyright Chris Wallis (chris@wallisphotos.com)

 

Riding the UIV Cup for the first time in Gent, Olympic Academy riders Adam Blythe and Peter Kennaugh took the race by the scruff of the neck and showed what an awesome pairing they are in the Madison event by winning it in front of a crowd with many a British face in it.

 

It was business as usual for the pairing this week however as they carried on the training at the Manchester Velodrome under the guidance of coach Rod Ellingworth. On the Thursday, British Cycling spoke to one half of the pairing, Adam Blythe who has long been making a name for himself on the track and winning the UIV at Gent was just another step on the ladder.

 

“Gent was really good” he explained after a training session with his Academy teammates. “It was a good win to have and we both enjoyed it a lot. The big crowd with lots of Brits got behind us and it was dead good.” 

Left: Adam Blythe during the Gent 6 and right, Peter Kennaugh shows everyone who is number 1. Photos: Copyright Chris Wallis (chris@wallisphotos.com)

 

Asked to describe what the UIV Cup is, Adam explained “the UIV is where each of the six nights you have a flying Madison first and then you have a 200 or 250  lap Madison around 6.30pm and that is it for us.”

 

The Madison equates to about a 40 minute race which was obviously not enough for coach Rod Ellingworth who had them also doing a couple of hours in the morning as well! 

 

On the first night, Adam admits they didn’t know what to expect. “We didn’t really know how we or anyone was going but on the first night we got on well and won that and were chuffed with that and confident that we could carry that on.”

 

“On the second night though in the flying lap, which you got points for, a rival team gained points on us and continued to do so every day. So on the fifth night we had no choice but to take a lap so we committed to doing that  and managed to get it. On the final night we marked the riders we needed to and dug in for the final fifty laps of the race.”

 

Keeping them informed of what was going on, they had coach Rod Ellingworth who would watch and tell them what to do at crucial points like when to attack the other riders and so on.

 

Asked how the pace of the race compared to a international race like one at the  Revolution Opens, Adam replied “It is quite similar to the Madison’s at Revolution just about 100 laps longer! Two hundred laps isn’t too far but far enough to make you suffer.”

 

There were plenty of other rider’s suffering out there and Adam told us that their coach Rod Ellingworth let them stay a few nights until around 10pm to watch the pros events which Adam said was ‘pretty dam good’.

Riding the pro event were Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins who were out to gain as much experience as they could from the event in a year which includes the World Track Championships and Olympics. Photos: Copyright Chris Wallis (chris@wallisphotos.com)

 

UIV Talents Cup Results

Day 1
1. Peter Kennaugh / Adam Blythe (GBr) 13 pts
2. Davy Tuytens / Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) 11
3. Jesper Mørkøv / Christian Ranneries (Den) 2

 

Day 2
Not Known

 

Day 3
Not Known

 

Day 4
1. Davy Tuytens / Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) 69 pts
2. Peter Kennaugh / Adam Blythe (GBr) 51
3. Pavel Subrt / Marek Mixa (Cze) 25

 

Day 5
1. Peter Kennaugh / Adam Blythe (GBr) 68 pts
2. Pavel Subrt / Marek Mixa (Cze) 34
@1 lap
3 Davy Tuytens / Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) 86

 

Day 6
1. Guy East / Jackie Simes IV (USA) 1
2. Pavel Subrt / Marek Mixa (Cze) 18 pts
3. Peter Kennaugh / Adam Blythe (GBr) 14
 
Final standings
1. Peter Kennaugh / Adam Blythe (GBr) 82 pts
2. Pavel Subrt / Marek Mixa (Cze) 52
3. Davy Tuytens / Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) 96 pts